This bill requires schools to make at least one free or reduced cost meal available to children who meet federal eligibility guidelines and increases reimbursement to schools offering breakfast at no cost to eligible students.

Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:

1 School Boards; Food and Nutrition Programs. Amend RSA 189:11-a, I to read as follows:

I. Each school board shall make [a] at least one meal available during school hours to every pupil under its jurisdiction. Such meals shall be served without cost or at a reduced cost to any [needy] child who [is unable to pay the full cost of said meals] meets federal income eligibility guidelines. The state board of education shall [insure] ensure compliance with this section and shall establish minimum nutritional standards for such meals [and shall further establish] as well as income guidelines [setting forth] set for the [minimum] family size [annual income levels to be] used in determining eligibility for free and reduced price meals. Nothing in this section shall prohibit the operation of both a breakfast and lunch program in the same school. [Further any requirement of this section which conflicts with any federal statute or regulation may be waived by the state board of education.]

(b) Such school which demonstrates to the department of education that an approved school wellness policy, as required under the [Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004] Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, Public Law 111-296, and the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act, 42 U.S.C. section 1758b is in effect, and that such school is providing breakfast meals to pupils that meet or exceed the United States Department of Agriculture's child nutrition criteria may apply for and receive a 3 cent reimbursement for each breakfast meal served to a pupil and an additional 27 cent reimbursement for each meal served to students eligible for a reduced price meal. The department of education shall request biennial appropriations in an amount sufficient to meet projected school breakfast reimbursements to ensure students eligible for reduced price meals are offered breakfast at no cost. The department of education shall prescribe forms as necessary under this paragraph.

This bill as amended requires schools to make at least one free or reduced cost meal available to children who meet federal eligibility guidelines. To pay for this requirement, the Department of Education is required to request a state appropriation to provide a free breakfast to students eligible for reduced cost meals. In order to estimate the expenditures required of the Department to provide a free breakfast to eligible students each school day, the following assumptions were made:

the out-of-pocket household cost for a reduced breakfast is $0.30;

the state currently funds $0.03 for every breakfast served at a school;

all 7,618 reduced price meal students in New Hampshire will participate every school day in a breakfast program for a total of 180 school days in a year; and

the total number of reduced price meal students will increase 3% annually, based on the Center for Disease Control projections for different age groups;

the average daily attendance for New Hampshire students in school year 2018 was 94.4%; and